1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus having a guide member to guide a paper which is conveyed to an image forming unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a conventional image forming apparatus such as a photo printer is mainly classified as either an apparatus (US patent laid open publication No. 2003-71887) in which an ink ribbon is heated by a thermal print head (TPH) to sublimate ink on a surface of the ink ribbon and to transfer the sublimated ink onto a printing medium and an apparatus (US patent laid open publication No. 2003-125206) in which a medium having at least one ink layer which reveals color when heat is applied thereto. The medium is heated by the above mentioned thermal print head to form the image. Thus, the image is formed without using the ink ribbon.
FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 are views illustrating an operation of a conventional image forming apparatus 100. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the conventional image forming apparatus 100 comprises a paper feeding unit 110, a conveying roller 120 and an image forming unit 130.
The paper feeding unit 110 comprises a knock-up plate 111 on which the sheets of paper are stacked. The image forming unit 130 comprises a rotational plate 131 which is rotatably operated, a heat transferring unit 132 provided at a side of a surface of the rotational plate 131, and a pressurizing roller 133 for pressurizing the conveyed paper to the heat transferring unit 132.
FIG. 1 illustrates a state in which no printing medium is present in the conventional image forming apparatus 100. FIG. 2 illustrates a state in which a printing medium, such as a paper 1, is present in the conventional image forming apparatus 100 and fed therein. When the conventional image forming apparatus 100 is in a paper feeding state, the rotational plate 131 is rotated in a clockwise direction to enable the paper 1 to pass above the heat transferring unit 132. Also, the knock-up plate 111 is vertically rotated according to the rotation of the rotational plate 131.
The heat transferring unit 132 comprises a heater (not shown) provided at a front end portion 134 thereof and a driver integrated circuit (IC) 135 for controlling the heater. The driver IC 135 is provided with a cover 136 for preventing a sweeping phenomenon caused by the paper 1.
In the conventional image forming apparatus 100, however, there is a problem that a front end of the paper 1, which is conveyed to the heat transferring unit 132 through the conveying roller 120, can be caught on a front end portion 136a of the cover 136 of the heat transferring unit 132 so that the paper is not conveyed well.